Anecdotes from great teachers

Did a great MA instructor once tell you something that has stuck with you for a long time? Share it with us.

I was taking a class with Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan a few years ago and he told us in broken English, "Big dog: no bark. Little dog: bark, bark, bark, bark, bark." His point was that power is quiet, and that a powerful person feels no need to make a lot of noise.

One time, my teacher told me a story from when he was a kid:
Back in the Philippines, the gangster weapon of choice was a modified slingshot, with a wire instead of a leather pouch. The projectiles were nails modified into a spike with a hook on it, and the hook hooked onto the wire. These slingshots flung the flechetes point-first into whatever target.

One such gang told my teacher's family they'd be coming back later for some sort of throwdown, but the locals all got together with chopping blades and stout sticks and scared them off.

When I was younger (and more arrogant) there was a pool hall where I used to frequent owned by an elderly Asian couple. One day after a particularly lucrative haul betting against a burly looking Samoan and rubbing it in arrogantly; the elderly Asian man came over and challenged me to a game for the stakes of what I had just won. Thinking I could double my money I accepted (of course) and he proceeded to wipe the floor with me.

When I left the pool hall I got attacked by the Samoan man I had beaten (and taunted) earlier. I got knocked to the ground and was about to get up and square up with my assailant when the elderly Asian man ran out of the pool hall and stood between us. He gave me a look, handed the man the money I had won (and then had confiscated) and told him to get lost. Then he turned to me and said:

'No matter how smart; or fast; or good. Always someone smarter; faster or better than you.'